frisky_polyp4250
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2018
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 32
- What state or country do you live in
- Michigan
I purchased my first home with my girlfriend a week ago. The whole process has been exciting. I now have an enormous list of work to do to finish my move, landscape the yard, and start furnishing the inside of the house. But as the case probably would be for a lot of us, that list hasn't gotten much shorter, but I have made a lot of progress planning and developing my first fish room. Coming from someone that has been running a 90g mixed reef in a small apartment for the last two years, the idea of a dedicated fish room seems too good to be true.
I thought about the idea of putting in a 200g reef in the living room of the house, with the sump and fish room plummed in the basement underneath. But I was concerned about the structural integrity of the floor and knew that putting 2000 lbs of weight on the floor would always be a concern in the back of my mind. Also, after destroying the floor in my apartment over the last two years, I have decided that there would a lot of value in the basement housing all aquaria in this house.
The basement has about 500 feet of finished area and another 500 square feet of unfinished area on the other side of an interior wall.
The wall on the right of the finished room is the same wall as the left of the utility room.
After a few more days of living here, that list of things I need to do hasn't gotten very much shorter, but the plans for the fish room have started to finalize. I looked into a few 200g tanks I found on craigslist and facebook marketplace, but I was too concerned about getting them moved into my basement. I then started to think about getting a second 90g to match my current system. It could look really nice to have a 90g LPS and Softy tank set up next to a 90g full-blown SPS reef. Sense I have the space for a dedicated fish room, I could plumb these two tanks (and anything else that I can dream up) into the same sump. If the two tanks were a part of the same system, that would mean only a single water change schedule, only a single water testing schedule, and a large water volume for stability. Win, win, win! I picked up a used 90g from craigslist and realized that the two 90g tanks would look really cool next to each other if they were both in the wall between the finished space and the utility room. I have some stretch goals of eventually plumbing a 40g breeder as a frag tank, a 10g nano tank with only GSP and another 10g nano tank with only pulse xenia into this system as well. However, those additions can come at a later date.
It has been about two weeks of living here now. My dad came over this weekend and helped me cut the first of two 90g sized holes in the drywall. It is officially too late to turn back!
We then started to build a stand with 2x4s that were connected to the frame of the wall.
We got the stand wrapped up and put the first of the two tanks on the stand and it started to feel very real.
I put a DIY sump beneath the stand and set up the plumbing. The tank came with a siphon based overflow, which I was hoping to get away from, but it works for now. I may get a different overflow and drill the tank in the future.
I added some trim to the front of the tank and this made it look like the tank was inside a picture frame. I also started to (slowly) get the tank wet. My RODI unit was working extra hard mixing up 120g or so of water.
I made the freshwater saltwater today and I ordered a Jebao adjustable return pump and picked up an Octo protein skimmer. I plan to run this berlin style with the drains going first into a refugium section and then into the protein skimmer section after.
I went with two Hydra 32 leds to start off. My plan is to use these for the SPS tank. I may have to add an additional fixutre down the road if the two is not enough light.
The lights are hanging on a PVC pipe. This definitely doesn't look awesome, but one of the perks of an in wall fish tank is that it doesn't matter if the light fixtures don't look great! You can only see them from the utility room.
I have had saltware running in the system for about a week now. I started to move some fish and coral over to this system from the 90g tank that is currently running at my old apartment.
Sorry for the overfly blue light without any filter, but this is what the front of the tank looks like after the first batch of coral was moved in. The coral has only been in the tank for about an hour, but It feels really good to look at the progress so far!
I thought about the idea of putting in a 200g reef in the living room of the house, with the sump and fish room plummed in the basement underneath. But I was concerned about the structural integrity of the floor and knew that putting 2000 lbs of weight on the floor would always be a concern in the back of my mind. Also, after destroying the floor in my apartment over the last two years, I have decided that there would a lot of value in the basement housing all aquaria in this house.
The basement has about 500 feet of finished area and another 500 square feet of unfinished area on the other side of an interior wall.
The wall on the right of the finished room is the same wall as the left of the utility room.
It has been about two weeks of living here now. My dad came over this weekend and helped me cut the first of two 90g sized holes in the drywall. It is officially too late to turn back!
We then started to build a stand with 2x4s that were connected to the frame of the wall.
We got the stand wrapped up and put the first of the two tanks on the stand and it started to feel very real.
I put a DIY sump beneath the stand and set up the plumbing. The tank came with a siphon based overflow, which I was hoping to get away from, but it works for now. I may get a different overflow and drill the tank in the future.
I added some trim to the front of the tank and this made it look like the tank was inside a picture frame. I also started to (slowly) get the tank wet. My RODI unit was working extra hard mixing up 120g or so of water.
I made the freshwater saltwater today and I ordered a Jebao adjustable return pump and picked up an Octo protein skimmer. I plan to run this berlin style with the drains going first into a refugium section and then into the protein skimmer section after.
I went with two Hydra 32 leds to start off. My plan is to use these for the SPS tank. I may have to add an additional fixutre down the road if the two is not enough light.
The lights are hanging on a PVC pipe. This definitely doesn't look awesome, but one of the perks of an in wall fish tank is that it doesn't matter if the light fixtures don't look great! You can only see them from the utility room.
I have had saltware running in the system for about a week now. I started to move some fish and coral over to this system from the 90g tank that is currently running at my old apartment.
Sorry for the overfly blue light without any filter, but this is what the front of the tank looks like after the first batch of coral was moved in. The coral has only been in the tank for about an hour, but It feels really good to look at the progress so far!
